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While it’s been a while since we’ve last posted a Swat’s Cooking update, I assure you that we have been eating. And, I feel that last night’s cooking adventure is memorable enough that it should be shared with the greater public.

Long time no see. So in that long time, I made a trip to NYC to visit a high school friend. Central Park. Ramen. Froyo. Museums (without Aileen). Those are just some bullet points to what I did during my trip. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some snap spots of my trip:

Swarthmore is close to Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a big city. In fact, Philadelphia is the fifth largest American city, in regards to population. And yet, despite the fact that we’ve established how large Philadelphia is, I get cabin fever.

As I have grown older, I have realized that I need to change my environment often. Swarthmore is great, as is Philadelphia, but I’ve found that, when I have cabin fever, I have to change cities to change pace. Luckily, public transportation is very, very, very easy to navigate at Swarthmore. It takes very little time to get into Philadelphia, and then to take a Megabus or Boltbus to New York.

So, while at Swarthmore this summer, I, along with my coworkers, have taken several weekend trips off campus to nearby large cities. (Steven has gone to both New York and D.C., Lauren went to D.C. this past weekend, and I’ve been to New York three times, and hope to go to Boston.) The great thing about being here over the summer is that we get to explore the campus, but, also, that we can travel without having to worry about homework.

The first time I went to New York, I was going home for my birthday. I was able to spend a long weekend in NYC with my roommate and friend, both Swatties, so that we could celebrate all of our birthdays. The second time, I went in alone to meet up with family and high school friends.

But, this last time was definitely the most Swat-Summer-filled trip. Sera and I went in on Saturday morning to meet up with Steven and spend the weekend visiting museums and eating good food.

Saturday, July 6, it finally happened. I went PEACH PICKING at Linvilla Orchards (about a 12 minute drive from campus). In case you missed out on my introductory post, something important to know about me: I love fruit. But, more specifically, I love PEACHES. I had been waiting all summer for the orchard to declare the peaches ready to pick, so when the opportunity was available, I couldn’t wait.

I convinced Kenyetta to join me on this very hot (sweltering is probably the more appropriate term) Saturday morning. We didn’t have to worry about any crowds because the Blueberry Festival scheduled for that day had been canceled (potentially due to a slight heat advisory). And, as an added bonus to the wonderful peach picking, they opened up the blueberries for picking as well. There was a plentiful supply because they had cut off picking that week to prepare for the festival.

It seems that this summer is the summer of goals. In addition to our bucket list, we have taken on another challenge: extreme eating. It all started a few weeks ago, right on Eddie’s birthday, when Eddie and Sera decided to eat both a KFC Double Down and a BK Bacon Sundae. I had the (unfortunate?) privilege of watching them complete this task. Since that day, we have all been on the lookout for outrageous foods, both in regards to content and quantity.

A few weeks later, we all received an invitation to an event hosted by Sera, asking us to take on the Vermonster at a Ben & Jerry’s in University City…

Greetings from an air-conditioned room (if you haven’t already noticed, I don’t often enjoy the heat… I’m more of a winter person)!

Now that all of the post-holiday chaos has calmed down, I think it’s about time that we told you about our Fourth of July. While I can’t speak for Lauren or Eddie, who did their own exciting things for the holiday, Steven and I went on a very, very hot Philadelphia outing with some other Swatties (Sera, Awjin, Eric, and Robbie).

Having been here for three years already, there are a ton of things I’ve been able to do! One thing I admittedly haven’t done though is really taken the time to explore the Crum. With over 400 acres of untouched woodland, you’d figure it’d be hard to miss, but here we are. Thankfully, fellow summer admissions workers Aileen and I took an impromptu hike through the Crum on our way to play some tennis (I think she was okay with the exchange). Anyway, about midway through the hike I let down my reservations (I’m not huge on the whole woods thing) and decided to just roll with it. Not because I was warming up to the idea of ticks and poison ivy but rather, I realized this was the perfect opportunity to cross yet another thing off of my ever expanding Swarthmore bucket list.